Forgotten Woods
Race of Cain

I'll be clear, Forgotten Woods never really impressed me. I listened to their first two albums, "As the Wolf Gather" (1994) and "The Course of Mankind" (1996), on friends' recommendations, but they didn't leave a big impression on me; they seemed to be nothing more than a more or less original reinterpretation of the way to black metal in the Varg Vikernes style, nothing truly personal. However, I always recognized the group for having a spontaneous, true, genuinely misanthropic attitude, far removed from the excesses and macho-satanic poses that characterized and still characterize many acts of the genre. After those first two albums, the group stopped, and the project was put on hold, with the band members continuing their activities under the name Joyless, a band, however, far from the sonic extremism of the original group. Then, about ten years later, something started simmering again in the Forgotten Woods pot, and the group officially resumed activity. The black kids' anticipation was intense, as the act had reached legendary status. In June 2007, the new "Race of Cain" was officially released under the Italian label ATMF, after the previous label, No Colours, refused to produce it due to the lyrics, labeled as Nazi (the group later defended themselves in an interview with the webzine "Elskrin", through Rune Vedaa: "Who the hell do they think we are? NSBM is beyond idiocy! Ours was simply a metaphor describing mass hysteria, brainwashing, and the general idiocy of the herd."). But this wouldn't be the only thing to spark discussion.

The album, upon release, took everyone by surprise, starting with the artwork. The cover features a photo of a girl dressed as a little devil, smiling with an almost arrogant expression; the packaging is a kind of mini-book with the album lyrics and disorienting and disturbing images; I've rarely seen black metal artwork done so well. But these novelties in terms of image correspond to a renewed attitudinal vigor: the old, desperate, melancholic, naturalistic Forgotten Woods no longer exist; in their place is a group of angry social-Darwinists with very clear ideas, unafraid to get their hands dirty with the almost power electronics of the intro "Race of Abel", with the slow punk/hc border riffs of "Nightly Paradise", with the blind black metal fury of "A Landmine Reprisal", with the minimalism of "One Day", the subtly psychedelic proto-folk of "The Principle and the Whip" (featuring a female voice), with the confusing and almost noise black metal of "Jedem Das Seine/Erasing the Fuckhead Majority", with the beautiful and 100% black metal "Here, in the Obsession", with the '80s thrash riffing of the final "Third Eye (New Creature)", an authentic scandal stone due to its lyrical content: it was because of this song that Forgotten Woods and No Colours Rec. ceased their collaboration ("No Colours asked us to change the lyrics or completely remove the song from the album. Since we're not one of those shitty bands manipulated by labels, we refused, freeing ourselves from our contract, which should have guaranteed us artistic freedom," again Rune Vedaa, in the same interview).

It's pointless, given the nature of the product, to dwell on technical details: the production is like grandma's basement, the instrumental technique is (deliberately?) poor; the lyrics, on the other hand, are very interesting and even intelligent, a luxury black metal bands usually don't afford us, although deliberately provocative, in short, to be taken with a grain of salt.

The judgment I give this album is quite flattering, it is well composed, intelligent, and in its genre, even courageous, although naturally, it's nothing really new; many will disagree with me, but in my opinion, the new Forgotten Woods are one of the few true black metal bands left on the planet, more than Satyricon, more than the modest Gorgoroth, more than any of Abbath's solo projects. If we look at this album in the context of today's black metal scene, I believe it deserves a 10 out of 5. Fortunately for us, there are other musical genres, so a 4 out of 5 is more than enough!